Star Wars without too much death and mayhem?
September 22, 2010 12:39 AM Subscribe
I want to make a kind-of-scary movie not scary by editing out the scary parts. Can I do this relatively easily?
Courtesy of Lego and general media saturation, my kids, 5 & 7 years old, have their heads full of "Star Wars" without ever having actually seen the movie.
I was about eleven or twelve when I first saw it and remember some parts being pretty damn scary, so I imagine for a seven year old, much less a five year old, they would be way too scary. Other parts of the movie though, were terrific and so I thought, 'why not edit out the super scary parts?' They could get the land cruisers and robots and flying through space and stuff without the, you know, death and (too much) fighting and that garbage-compactor snake.
I know very little about these newfangled 'computers' you kids use (I mostly tend my lawn) but the desk-top I do have has an apple on it, I got it about two years ago and so it has the accompanying suite of software programs which, well, I can muddle my way through pretty adroitly once I'm set on the right path.
How would you do this?
Courtesy of Lego and general media saturation, my kids, 5 & 7 years old, have their heads full of "Star Wars" without ever having actually seen the movie.
I was about eleven or twelve when I first saw it and remember some parts being pretty damn scary, so I imagine for a seven year old, much less a five year old, they would be way too scary. Other parts of the movie though, were terrific and so I thought, 'why not edit out the super scary parts?' They could get the land cruisers and robots and flying through space and stuff without the, you know, death and (too much) fighting and that garbage-compactor snake.
I know very little about these newfangled 'computers' you kids use (I mostly tend my lawn) but the desk-top I do have has an apple on it, I got it about two years ago and so it has the accompanying suite of software programs which, well, I can muddle my way through pretty adroitly once I'm set on the right path.
How would you do this?
Oh, and this 3-year-old girl saw it un-modifed and she seems to have been okay—called it "an exciting movie".
posted by blueberry at 1:05 AM on September 22, 2010
posted by blueberry at 1:05 AM on September 22, 2010
This is true of my nephew as well. He loves star wars but his only point of reference is Clone Wars. I think that's enough. It's his era's thing to see Star Wars this way. I would not even pretend to come to a point where you can share your view unless it is done with a true show in mind. Don't mix up your sense of parental responsibility with the chance to show your children what made your childhood special. Be ready for crit as well. They may tell you the special effects suck and that it would be better as a cartoon.
posted by parmanparman at 1:12 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by parmanparman at 1:12 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
I saw the original Star Wars trilogy when I was 12. The only scary part was when Luke battled you-know-who in Yoda's cave. During that part, my dad gave me a blanket.
I don't think 5 year olds are that easily frightened.
posted by shii at 1:57 AM on September 22, 2010
I don't think 5 year olds are that easily frightened.
posted by shii at 1:57 AM on September 22, 2010
Best answer: I know your question is 'how would you do this', not 'would you do this', but ... don't do this. Are you going to redact books for your children? Where are you going to draw the line? When will you let them see the full movie? What will be your decision criteria?
If you were going do to this, you'd need software to rip a DVD to a file format you can manipulate in iMovie. All of this could be found through Google.
posted by impluvium at 2:13 AM on September 22, 2010 [6 favorites]
If you were going do to this, you'd need software to rip a DVD to a file format you can manipulate in iMovie. All of this could be found through Google.
posted by impluvium at 2:13 AM on September 22, 2010 [6 favorites]
I watched the movies at four -- the only thing that sort of scared me was Jabba. I wasn't scarred for life. Like blueberry says, the half-burnt Owen and Beru bodies are a bit on the ooky side but if you're a little kid you may not even realize those were people. It's not like they walk up to the body and go 'OMIGOD AUNT BERU' or anything.
Unless you've got REALLY nervous kids, I'd vote against cutting out the 'scary' parts. For one it's difficult to say what your kids would be scared OF -- Jabba? Lightsaber duels? Chewie? -- and plus, some of the stereotypical 'scary' stuff is sort of important to the plot. Han getting encased in Carbonite still gives me the willies, but if you leave it out, then you have a huge disconnect with him being woken and then you have a small, VERY PERCEPTIVE child going 'How'd he get in that box, mom?'
posted by Heretical at 2:18 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Unless you've got REALLY nervous kids, I'd vote against cutting out the 'scary' parts. For one it's difficult to say what your kids would be scared OF -- Jabba? Lightsaber duels? Chewie? -- and plus, some of the stereotypical 'scary' stuff is sort of important to the plot. Han getting encased in Carbonite still gives me the willies, but if you leave it out, then you have a huge disconnect with him being woken and then you have a small, VERY PERCEPTIVE child going 'How'd he get in that box, mom?'
posted by Heretical at 2:18 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I saw it three times when I was seven. Many of my friends saw it more times were that. Maybe we were tougher in the 70s. Maybe that's why the world is so fucked up now. Only you can say.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:23 AM on September 22, 2010
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:23 AM on September 22, 2010
Your DVR or DVD player probably has a button to"skip forward."
posted by skidoom at 3:30 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by skidoom at 3:30 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Very few people here are actually answering your question about how to edit the films. (For the record, I agree with the prevailing opinion here - my boy saw the films at 6, my daughter saw them at 4, nothing traumatic. They far prefer the originals to the sequels and Clone Wars, which they think are pretty lame.) But you can do it with your Mac. Download a free program called Handbrake, which will import the film to your hard drive (this is called "ripping"), then edit using the included video editing software. You'll need to get yourself up to speed on basic editing, which basically involves selecting and deleting the bits you don't want, then exporting the whole thing to a new file and either watching it on your Mac or burning to a blank DVD.
posted by jbickers at 4:20 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by jbickers at 4:20 AM on September 22, 2010 [2 favorites]
Best answer: How would you do this?
Download some free editing software and follow the instructions. You can't edit the DVD directly, but you can probably copy the DVD to files on your computer, edit the files -- for each scary bit, find the start and end time, then excise all material between those two points -- and burn the edited files to a blank DVD.
I say "probably" because the disc may be copy-protected, in which case you might need to do something more than just save the files to your hard drive -- you may need to defeat the copy protection using tools that you download.
posted by pracowity at 4:22 AM on September 22, 2010
Download some free editing software and follow the instructions. You can't edit the DVD directly, but you can probably copy the DVD to files on your computer, edit the files -- for each scary bit, find the start and end time, then excise all material between those two points -- and burn the edited files to a blank DVD.
I say "probably" because the disc may be copy-protected, in which case you might need to do something more than just save the files to your hard drive -- you may need to defeat the copy protection using tools that you download.
posted by pracowity at 4:22 AM on September 22, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the insights and, more relevantly, the very straightforward suggestion of how this would be done.
(Yes, kids are tough and many weren't scarred or scared and etc. But. I'm am, respectfully, not so interested in how other kids have taken this as much as I am in how my kids might.)
posted by From Bklyn at 4:58 AM on September 22, 2010
(Yes, kids are tough and many weren't scarred or scared and etc. But. I'm am, respectfully, not so interested in how other kids have taken this as much as I am in how my kids might.)
posted by From Bklyn at 4:58 AM on September 22, 2010
I was about eleven or twelve when I first saw it and remember some parts being pretty damn scary, so I imagine for a seven year old, much less a five year old, they would be way too scary.
Honestly, I think you should let them walk the full movie and see how the actually react, not project how you reacted onto them. If they seem to get to scared by it, fine, you know to be more selective about their movies in the future. If not, also cool, as you don't have to sit there and actually try to edit movies.
I would hate to be your kids though, when other kids are describing these scenes from the movie and they're completely clueless and possibly even start insisting such scenes never happened.
posted by nomadicink at 5:55 AM on September 22, 2010 [5 favorites]
Honestly, I think you should let them walk the full movie and see how the actually react, not project how you reacted onto them. If they seem to get to scared by it, fine, you know to be more selective about their movies in the future. If not, also cool, as you don't have to sit there and actually try to edit movies.
I would hate to be your kids though, when other kids are describing these scenes from the movie and they're completely clueless and possibly even start insisting such scenes never happened.
posted by nomadicink at 5:55 AM on September 22, 2010 [5 favorites]
I would also suggest that your job as parent isn't to make sure your kids aren't scared, but rather to help them face and cope with their fears. Watching Star Wars with them sounds like a excellent chance to do the latter.
posted by nomadicink at 6:08 AM on September 22, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by nomadicink at 6:08 AM on September 22, 2010 [3 favorites]
Best answer: iMovie, which comes bundled with OSX does an OK job of editing the movie files, though I've found it to get a little slow once the file(s) get to a certain size. In fairness, though, my one attempt at a project was an attempt to make my own Downfall video. 2nding Handbrake for ripping DVDs - it's awesome for that sort of thing, and the price is right. There are some bits on Apple's website on iMovie here.
posted by jquinby at 6:30 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by jquinby at 6:30 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I would also suggest that your job as parent isn't to make sure your kids aren't scared, but rather to help them face and cope with their fears. Watching Star Wars with them sounds like a excellent chance to do the latter.
I agree, both with your first and second sentence. But I also think (and this is entirely mine and my wife's sentiments here) it's possible to introduce things to kids when they aren't ready for them and then you're not really helping either yourself or your kid. Our kids don't really watch much tv (an hour a week, about) and so I think 'Star Wars' might be a real sugar-bomb for them. Which led me to wonder if I could (and maybe I couldn't without it being an incoherent mess) cut it into a sort of 'best of' reel. But I didn't have an idea of how to go about that, even, hence this ask.me. And none of their friends have seen it (that might sound impossible but, and I don't want to start something with this so please believe me when I say I don't mean this in a judgmental way, we don't live in the US and outside the US the attitudes towards things like this are/can be different - amoung our friends watching Star Wars is not what it was when I was younger.) Thanks again.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:46 AM on September 22, 2010
I agree, both with your first and second sentence. But I also think (and this is entirely mine and my wife's sentiments here) it's possible to introduce things to kids when they aren't ready for them and then you're not really helping either yourself or your kid. Our kids don't really watch much tv (an hour a week, about) and so I think 'Star Wars' might be a real sugar-bomb for them. Which led me to wonder if I could (and maybe I couldn't without it being an incoherent mess) cut it into a sort of 'best of' reel. But I didn't have an idea of how to go about that, even, hence this ask.me. And none of their friends have seen it (that might sound impossible but, and I don't want to start something with this so please believe me when I say I don't mean this in a judgmental way, we don't live in the US and outside the US the attitudes towards things like this are/can be different - amoung our friends watching Star Wars is not what it was when I was younger.) Thanks again.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:46 AM on September 22, 2010
No problem, From Bklyn.
I'd suggest trying a shorter video piece first though, just cause downloading, editing and saving an edited 2 hour movie can take quite a bit of time, even on professional video editing workstations. It doesn't have to be Star Wars specific, just say, a five minute piece to get teach yourself how to edit and get a feel how long it would take you to do a whole movie.
posted by nomadicink at 7:09 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'd suggest trying a shorter video piece first though, just cause downloading, editing and saving an edited 2 hour movie can take quite a bit of time, even on professional video editing workstations. It doesn't have to be Star Wars specific, just say, a five minute piece to get teach yourself how to edit and get a feel how long it would take you to do a whole movie.
posted by nomadicink at 7:09 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I was seriously traumatized by ROTJ (force lightning!!) when it came out. I saw it at the tail end of its theatrical run, so I was very close to turning 5. Nightmares for months. As a result my dad kept me from the theatres and most movies till Star Trek V premiered. Then I was scared of the Giant Not God Head Guy and Spock's brother and childbirth and Spock's mean dad and crazy cat women and, well, yeah.
I think this shouldn't be hard in principle, but you should be prepared for it to be very tedious picking just the spots to eliminate, OP. You might want to wait a few years - editing just the scary bits out may just make a film you don't like very much or one that makes no sense to the kids (really - every single Vader scene is scary and tense and I always hid under a blanket.) It might help to add your own cheesy wipes across the screen. I've never done this on a Mac, but my own efforts have made me gain a whole new respect for the entire post-production process. Every movie editor I've used in the last few years has had the wipes, at least. Makes you feel like a rock star, putting them in home movies.
(I do concur with the above on the skeletons. I watched that film ten or fifteen times as a kid with that part edited out on TV, and then a bunch more on video, and i was at least 20 before I realized they were skeltons at all. But Vader in the cave and that awful snake were pure nightmare fuel.)
posted by SMPA at 7:18 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think this shouldn't be hard in principle, but you should be prepared for it to be very tedious picking just the spots to eliminate, OP. You might want to wait a few years - editing just the scary bits out may just make a film you don't like very much or one that makes no sense to the kids (really - every single Vader scene is scary and tense and I always hid under a blanket.) It might help to add your own cheesy wipes across the screen. I've never done this on a Mac, but my own efforts have made me gain a whole new respect for the entire post-production process. Every movie editor I've used in the last few years has had the wipes, at least. Makes you feel like a rock star, putting them in home movies.
(I do concur with the above on the skeletons. I watched that film ten or fifteen times as a kid with that part edited out on TV, and then a bunch more on video, and i was at least 20 before I realized they were skeltons at all. But Vader in the cave and that awful snake were pure nightmare fuel.)
posted by SMPA at 7:18 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I was pretty much allowed to watch Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and Disney when I was a kid; never saw any violence, sex, or anything really scary (Monstro in Pinocchio was about as scary as it got).
As a result, when I got my first exposure to violence in movies at age 11[*], it was HORRIBLE. I had no background to cope with the violence I'd just seen[**], or how scary it was. Frankly, being so sheltered and then getting such a sudden exposure to something so scary and violent scarred me for life. I still can't manage to watch anything with graphic violence--which means a lot of movies in all genres, not just occasional particularly icky movies.
Please don't shelter your kids so much that when they do finally get a glimpse of something scary, they don't know how to deal with it and are turned off by it forever. I miss out on a *lot* that other people enjoy, and it's also a major hindrance when watching movies with my husband or friends.
[*] I kind of wonder, now, when my parents were going to get around to introducing me to scary, violent, or sexual content. Did they plan to keep me sheltered forever?
[**] I walked in on what may be the worst scene in Robocop. At SCHOOL. I still don't know why anyone was watching Robocop at my school. Your kids may be exposed to things you don't want at any point in life. Better to prepare them than to assume you can always control this.
posted by galadriel at 7:19 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
As a result, when I got my first exposure to violence in movies at age 11[*], it was HORRIBLE. I had no background to cope with the violence I'd just seen[**], or how scary it was. Frankly, being so sheltered and then getting such a sudden exposure to something so scary and violent scarred me for life. I still can't manage to watch anything with graphic violence--which means a lot of movies in all genres, not just occasional particularly icky movies.
Please don't shelter your kids so much that when they do finally get a glimpse of something scary, they don't know how to deal with it and are turned off by it forever. I miss out on a *lot* that other people enjoy, and it's also a major hindrance when watching movies with my husband or friends.
[*] I kind of wonder, now, when my parents were going to get around to introducing me to scary, violent, or sexual content. Did they plan to keep me sheltered forever?
[**] I walked in on what may be the worst scene in Robocop. At SCHOOL. I still don't know why anyone was watching Robocop at my school. Your kids may be exposed to things you don't want at any point in life. Better to prepare them than to assume you can always control this.
posted by galadriel at 7:19 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Good on you, From Bklyn, for doing your job. You know your kids, and you know what your kids need / don't need. I'm glad somebody came along and answered your question.
posted by Alt F4 at 7:25 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Alt F4 at 7:25 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
I was a little afraid of Star Wars when I first saw it, around the 5-7 age range.
That said, I wasn't afraid of any of the "violent" parts. I was afraid of Hoth. Something about the bleakness of being lost and alone (and cold! and hurt!) out in the wilderness really unnerved me. I think I also didn't like the tauntauns. Which is probably the only thing me and Han Solo ever had in common.
But, you know, kids are going to be unnerved by things. That's OK. Also, for what it's worth, I was scared shitless by E.T. well until my teens. He's just freaky. I still can't entirely watch that movie without getting squicked out in certain parts. And E. T. is a children's movie nobody would ever consider shielding their grade schoolers from.
posted by Sara C. at 7:26 AM on September 22, 2010
That said, I wasn't afraid of any of the "violent" parts. I was afraid of Hoth. Something about the bleakness of being lost and alone (and cold! and hurt!) out in the wilderness really unnerved me. I think I also didn't like the tauntauns. Which is probably the only thing me and Han Solo ever had in common.
But, you know, kids are going to be unnerved by things. That's OK. Also, for what it's worth, I was scared shitless by E.T. well until my teens. He's just freaky. I still can't entirely watch that movie without getting squicked out in certain parts. And E. T. is a children's movie nobody would ever consider shielding their grade schoolers from.
posted by Sara C. at 7:26 AM on September 22, 2010
Oh for pete's sake, if some of the content is going to cause some sleepless nights at this particular point, it's not weird for From Bklyn to avoid it for now. Little kids aren't always very good at analyzing and processing sources of anxiety, you know.
From Bklyn, going the editing route, in my mind, seems to be a LOT of work for the payoff.
Maybe you could do this very low-tech -- watch the movie, taking note of the counter, with the aim of dividing it into segments. Show the movie in "episodes" which conveniently cut out fighting-heavy portions. You could get cute and introduce each segment with your own telling of "previously on Star Wars" and include any story-relevant information from parts that they didn't see.
(It doesn't necessarily need to be a secret that there are some parts that you're not showing them. Sure, later they'll be all ZOMG I can't BELIEVE you thought the trash compactor was too scary and you can be all ZOMG yourself, kid, you slept with me for two weeks after Toy Story.)
posted by desuetude at 7:51 AM on September 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
From Bklyn, going the editing route, in my mind, seems to be a LOT of work for the payoff.
Maybe you could do this very low-tech -- watch the movie, taking note of the counter, with the aim of dividing it into segments. Show the movie in "episodes" which conveniently cut out fighting-heavy portions. You could get cute and introduce each segment with your own telling of "previously on Star Wars" and include any story-relevant information from parts that they didn't see.
(It doesn't necessarily need to be a secret that there are some parts that you're not showing them. Sure, later they'll be all ZOMG I can't BELIEVE you thought the trash compactor was too scary and you can be all ZOMG yourself, kid, you slept with me for two weeks after Toy Story.)
posted by desuetude at 7:51 AM on September 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
Guys, the poster isn't asking "Is Star Wars too violent for my kids," he's asking "how hard is it to edit an existing film on a Mac."
You may want to consider title cards (they're easy in most editing suites! Trust me!) for the excerpted material; something to bridge the gap with a short explanation of what has happened. For a little extra effort, they'll turn "your cut" of the movies from a rough edit into a fun artifact for your kids to look at years later.
Watching something with a minute of narrative suddenly missing is no fun, but watching something where there's a dramatic fade to
"Obi-Wan and Vader engage in savage lightsaber combat! Obi-Wan is tragically struck down by the dastardly Lord of the Sith, but vows to return, somehow more powerful than ever. What could that possibly mean?"
...could be kinda fun, not only at the time, but also 10 or 15 years down the road when the kids are looking at the goofy edit of a movie their dad made for them.
Data point: I loved Battle of the Planets as a kid; it was a Japanese animé that Sandy Frank brought over to North America, and censors made the company cut all the (really rather spectacular) violence out. He had to create a new character to narrate all of the insane plot jumps resulting from the censorship hack jobs; even then, re-watching this cartoon as an adult, I'm amazed at how it makes absolutely no sense. It literally transitions from "oh no! An enemy is attacking!" to "now we're on the moon riding tigers!" from shot to shot.
So your kids will be able to handle the dissonance of the jump cut from scene to scene, but it could be more fun for all concerned to drop something in there. Just sayin'.
posted by Shepherd at 7:54 AM on September 22, 2010 [3 favorites]
You may want to consider title cards (they're easy in most editing suites! Trust me!) for the excerpted material; something to bridge the gap with a short explanation of what has happened. For a little extra effort, they'll turn "your cut" of the movies from a rough edit into a fun artifact for your kids to look at years later.
Watching something with a minute of narrative suddenly missing is no fun, but watching something where there's a dramatic fade to
"Obi-Wan and Vader engage in savage lightsaber combat! Obi-Wan is tragically struck down by the dastardly Lord of the Sith, but vows to return, somehow more powerful than ever. What could that possibly mean?"
...could be kinda fun, not only at the time, but also 10 or 15 years down the road when the kids are looking at the goofy edit of a movie their dad made for them.
Data point: I loved Battle of the Planets as a kid; it was a Japanese animé that Sandy Frank brought over to North America, and censors made the company cut all the (really rather spectacular) violence out. He had to create a new character to narrate all of the insane plot jumps resulting from the censorship hack jobs; even then, re-watching this cartoon as an adult, I'm amazed at how it makes absolutely no sense. It literally transitions from "oh no! An enemy is attacking!" to "now we're on the moon riding tigers!" from shot to shot.
So your kids will be able to handle the dissonance of the jump cut from scene to scene, but it could be more fun for all concerned to drop something in there. Just sayin'.
posted by Shepherd at 7:54 AM on September 22, 2010 [3 favorites]
I don't really have a software/editing contribution, and it looks like jbickers and pracowity have covered that part anyway. I do have a suggestion about controlled viewing.
I'm a teacher, and lots of classes, at all levels and all subjects may show mainstream movies as a way of illustrating concepts or teaching literature. Because all students don't have the same background knowledge or attention span, a pretty common (and productive) way to show movies in the classroom is to show 15-20 minutes at a time, then turn off the video and have a discussion about what you just saw.
Breaking the movie up that way would be insanely irritating to adults who are watching for pleasure, but to make sure somebody knows who all the characters are, where the story is going, what motivations are represented (or other detail), it's both reasonable and effective. It also effectively breaks up any real potential for scariness in violence, because of the broken continuity and loss of immersion.
This would give your kids a chance to see the whole movie, and you a chance to moderate and mitigate their exposure to the scariest parts of the movie. Kind of a "scaffolding" of pop culture, if you will.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:57 AM on September 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
I'm a teacher, and lots of classes, at all levels and all subjects may show mainstream movies as a way of illustrating concepts or teaching literature. Because all students don't have the same background knowledge or attention span, a pretty common (and productive) way to show movies in the classroom is to show 15-20 minutes at a time, then turn off the video and have a discussion about what you just saw.
Breaking the movie up that way would be insanely irritating to adults who are watching for pleasure, but to make sure somebody knows who all the characters are, where the story is going, what motivations are represented (or other detail), it's both reasonable and effective. It also effectively breaks up any real potential for scariness in violence, because of the broken continuity and loss of immersion.
This would give your kids a chance to see the whole movie, and you a chance to moderate and mitigate their exposure to the scariest parts of the movie. Kind of a "scaffolding" of pop culture, if you will.
posted by toodleydoodley at 7:57 AM on September 22, 2010 [4 favorites]
If I were going to do this, rather than editing out the scary bits, I would divide the film into episodes. (But not cliffhanger-y episodes; if you're worried about the kids being scared, you wouldn't want to leave them worrying if someone made it out of a jam alive or not.)
Then, you could watch the movie over several nights in a week, giving ample time for you to talk about what happened each time. Another good thing about this is that scary scenes will be divided up, so your kids wouldn't have to deal with them all in one overwhelming chunk.
It would preserve the integrity of the film's plot, but give you flexibility. And since the whole thing is inspired by old action serials, showing it in episodes like this would be in keeping with the spirit of the entire enterprise.
I trust you know your own kids and what they can handle. I have a young friend who at 14 has just finally graduated to watching films with any sort of fighting in them; she's perfectly well adjusted in the world, but just couldn't deal with that kind of film before now. Kids have an incredible variance of tolerance for these things, and I believe you when you say that Star Wars is too intense for them as is.
--
On preview: what toodleydoodley said.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:22 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Then, you could watch the movie over several nights in a week, giving ample time for you to talk about what happened each time. Another good thing about this is that scary scenes will be divided up, so your kids wouldn't have to deal with them all in one overwhelming chunk.
It would preserve the integrity of the film's plot, but give you flexibility. And since the whole thing is inspired by old action serials, showing it in episodes like this would be in keeping with the spirit of the entire enterprise.
I trust you know your own kids and what they can handle. I have a young friend who at 14 has just finally graduated to watching films with any sort of fighting in them; she's perfectly well adjusted in the world, but just couldn't deal with that kind of film before now. Kids have an incredible variance of tolerance for these things, and I believe you when you say that Star Wars is too intense for them as is.
--
On preview: what toodleydoodley said.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:22 AM on September 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also: since editing out all those stormtroopers that get knocked down in their laughably useless armor would cut out many, many, many scenes in the movie, you could perhaps bend the truth a little and suggest that blasters are like tasers: they knock you out but don't kill you.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:25 AM on September 22, 2010
posted by ocherdraco at 9:25 AM on September 22, 2010
This is sort of anecdotal, but when I was a kid, we would watch super-8 movies on my dad's projector--those little-reel films that were maybe 5 minutes long, no audio even. It was 1977 and Star Wars had just come out. We were itching to see it. So my dad one day brings home a new film reel. It's Star Wars! My dad got Star Wars for us!
Mom, Dad, my two sisters and I gathered round the projector with our Jiffy Pop and got ready for Star Wars!
It was some kind of highlight reel. Maybe 7 minutes long, with cards explaining what the heck was going on.
I was all revved up to tell this as a funny story, but I think I just discovered it's a sweet memory.
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:57 AM on September 22, 2010
Mom, Dad, my two sisters and I gathered round the projector with our Jiffy Pop and got ready for Star Wars!
It was some kind of highlight reel. Maybe 7 minutes long, with cards explaining what the heck was going on.
I was all revved up to tell this as a funny story, but I think I just discovered it's a sweet memory.
posted by Kafkaesque at 10:57 AM on September 22, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestion of cutting up the film into 'episodes' that maybe cut out the more violent or ambiguous passages and replace them with title cards. That is something that could maybe be totally workable. Later, they of course can watch the whole, unedited glory of it.
I think I'll do this.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:19 PM on September 22, 2010
I think I'll do this.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:19 PM on September 22, 2010
Just a data point: my children are five years old, and they've counted "Corpse Bride", "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline" as favorites for a couple of years now. Somehow my son got it in his head that Star Wars existed (when he was 4) and he watched one of the movies with no concerns or apparent ill effects.
(then again, their mother was taken to a theater to see "Tommy" when she was that age, and it haunts her to this day, so this is by no means a blanket "it'll be fine" suggestion for all scary movies -- but the mother who was thusly traumatized is the one who decided Star Wars would be fine, not me.)
posted by davejay at 2:10 PM on September 22, 2010
(then again, their mother was taken to a theater to see "Tommy" when she was that age, and it haunts her to this day, so this is by no means a blanket "it'll be fine" suggestion for all scary movies -- but the mother who was thusly traumatized is the one who decided Star Wars would be fine, not me.)
posted by davejay at 2:10 PM on September 22, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by blueberry at 1:02 AM on September 22, 2010